Saturday, June 25, 2016

PEC held its biennial Luncheon and Awards Presentation on June
21 at First Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon in conjunction with the 222nd General Assembly. Rebecca Barnes,
Environmental Ministries PC(USA) and Gary Payton, Fossil Free PCUSA, who
had attended the Paris Climate Talks in December 2015, discussed the
topic, “Beyond Paris: Rising Waters yet Rising Hope.”

The William Gibson Eco-Justice Award was presented to Rev. Dr.
Patricia K. Tull, who is A. B. Rhodes Professor Emerita of Old Testament,
Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, Program Director for Hoosier Interfaith Power
and Light, and author of “Inhabiting Eden: Christians, the Bible, and the
Ecological Crisis.” Dr. Tull is a GreenFaith Fellow, frequent speaker, and
workshop leader. William E. Gibson was a PEC founding member, author and
eco-justice advocate and this award is named in his memory.

The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR) is the winner

of the Restoring Creation Award. AIR was founded at First Presbyterian in
Deland, Florida in 1992 with the mission, “to implement sustainable farming
methods for poor farmers in Central America in order to protect water sources,
reduce hunger and malnutrition while protecting the gift of creation.” Since
then, AIR’s team has planted more than 4.2 million trees in Guatemala and
Nicaragua, trained 3,000 families in sustainable farming, built over 800
efficient stoves, and started dozens of micro-businesses. Anne Hallum is the
Founding President.

Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC) presented a new award this
year to a young adult who has outstanding leadership potential for eco-justice.
The first Emerging Earth Care Leader Award went to Vickie Machado. Vickie serves
on the Leadership Team of the Eco-Stewards Program and served as a young
adult leader in the Catholic Worker House in Gainesville. She also fought
fracking as an organizer for Food & Water Watch Florida and was
selected to participate in the Archdiocese of Miami’s Young Adult Papal Visit
to Cuba.

PEC Steering Committee members and volunteers also staffed a
booth in the General Assembly Exhibit Hall at the Oregon Convention Center that
expanded on our water theme. At the booth was a water cooler that was sometimes
empty and served as a bulletin board for posting messages about the upcoming
crisis regarding drinking water shortages, droughts and floods. Visitors could
take the bottled water quiz, sign the bottled water pledge, and pick out a
scripture about water for reflection during the day.

One hundred people attended the Luncheon and hundreds of people
came through the Exhibit Hall and had the opportunity to learn how PEC
supports people of faith working towards “environmental wholeness with social
justice."

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

I want to write to you today about Overture 09-01 from San
Francisco Presbytery, “On PC(USA) Fossil Fuel Divestment.” PEC has supported
this overture from the beginning of its predecessor and several of us on the
PEC Steering Committee have also worked on the Fossil Free PCUSA Steering
Committee.

The overture and the work of Fossil Free PCUSA calls our
denomination to do four things:

1. Express its profound concern about the destructive effects of
climate change on all God’s creation and divest from fossil fuels even as we
reduce our use of fossil fuels and shrink our carbon footprint.

2. Call upon the Board of Pensions and the Presbyterian Foundation
to immediately stop new investments in fossil fuel companies, and within three
years, divest from the fossil fuel companies identified in the Carbon
Underground 200 list.

3. Call upon the Stated Clerk to inform affected companies of this
action.

4. Call upon all levels of the denomination (presbyteries,
congregations, and individual members) in taking action to slow climate change.

Divestment is a way for we people of faith to act out our
theology. We believe that caring for creation is an integral part of who God
calls us to be. We can’t care for creation well if we are invested in companies
that destroy creation as part of their business model. We are called to be
prophetic models of change, so we must model what it means to put our treasure
where our hearts are.

Where we put our money defines us and has great power. That
power is why it matters what we buy at the supermarket (buying organic and
local food creates greater demand for more organic and local food), why it
matters what kinds of cars we buy (buying less gas for a hybrid vehicle creates
less demand for fossil fuels), and why it matters what products we fill our
lives with (even changing to recycled toilet paper changes demand for paper!)
Where we put our money shows where our hearts are.

And so it matters where we put our investments—how we make money
is a symbol for who we are as people who follow Jesus, people who are called to
love with our whole selves. If we make money from fossil fuel companies, it
doesn’t matter if we put that money back into local food or hybrid cars or
recycled paper—it’s money that comes from companies that burn fossil fuels and
wreak havoc on the planet. That’s why divestment needs to be part of our
response to climate change.

But divestment from fossil fuels has never just been about
money. It’s also a way to change society and speak up against the destruction
of God’s good earth. So, if you’re a commissioner at General Assembly, please
support this overture to divest from fossil fuels.

Fossil Free PCUSA will be joining PEC at General Assembly—we’ll
even be together in the exhibit hall in Booths 208 and 210.

To learn more about Fossil Free PCUSA visit our website, follow our blog or follow us on Facebook.

For creation,

Abby Mohaupt

Vice Moderator of PEC and member of FFPCUSA Steering Comittee

Abby Mohaupt is an eco-feminist theologian and ordained PC(USA)
teaching elder inNorthern California. She holds a Master of Divinity and a
Master of Theology from McCormick Theological Seminary. She currently serves as
the Faith Community Liaison and Volunteer Coordinator of Puente de la Costa Sur
in Pescadero, CA, a resource center for farmworkers and families.